WORK on the long-awaited £700m Cardiff International Sports Village looks on course to start before the end of the year - more than seven years after plans were first mooted.

WORK on the long-awaited &#xA3;700m Cardiff International Sports Village looks on course to start before the end of the year - more than seven years after plans were first mooted.

And the Echo can reveal that three consortia of companies, many of them internationally-known names, are within months of signing an agreement with Cardiff council to take the project forward.

Confidential documents leaked to the Echo also reveal that contractors are likely to move on site by the end of the year, with completion of the &#xA3;12m, 50-metre replacement for the demolished Wales Empire Pool due in October

2005.

A planning application for the pool is expected to be submitted in July or August.

The development will involve three consortia of companies - one to develop the waterfront, including the swimming pool; another to develop the retail part of the scheme; and a third to carry out infrastructure works to make the peninsula site in Ferry Road, Grangetown, suitable for development. The three consortia are set to work together as an alliance.

The confidential report to councillors also reveals that the pool will not be operated by the local authority because it would not be "commercially viable".

According to the document, it is intended to integrate the swimming pool

with other facilities. The sports village project will be self-financing, it is hoped, with funding obtained by disposing of land for residential, food and bulky goods retail and commercial leisure purposes.

Although it will not be built to meet Commonwealth Games standard, the pool will be capable of being adapted if a bid is made for the games.

It will be 10 lanes wide and 25 metres across with a separate warm-up pool. The Cardiff pool, which will have 900 seats for spectators and could be expanded, is to be based on a swimming complex in Glasgow.

According to experts, the main arena, including a competitive ice-rink, will need to be used at least 180 times a year to ensure its viability.

The development is scheduled for completion in up to 10 years.

The report also stresses the importance of the project in the council's vision to establish Cardiff as a top European capital.

A source close to the development said: "There is genuine confidence that this is for real but one should not underestimate that an awful lot of water has still to go under the bridge."